Monday Afternoon Business Brief

July 2, 2012, 2:36 PM

A report showing a slowdown in U.S. manufacturing has put Wall Street in a more cautious mood. Drops in the blue chip averages come after a big advance on Friday for stocks.

A purchasing managers' trade group says the nation's manufacturing sector contracted in June for the first time in nearly 3 years. A spokesman for the group says the decline is not necessarily a sign of something more ominous, but reflects concerns about slowdowns in China and Europe.

It is a move to expand beyond the traditional and weakening personal computer business. Dell says it is buying Quest Software for about $2.4 billion. Dell says the purchase should make it more competitive in the server, storage, networking and computing services business.

The U.S. Justice Department says GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to promoting two popular drugs for unapproved uses and to failing to report important safety data about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration. Government officials say it's the largest health care fraud settlement in the nation's history.

Europe's Airbus says it will build its first assembly plant in the U.S. in Mobile, Alabama. Meant to compete against rival Boeing, the plant is expected to cost $600 million to build and employ 1,000 people when it reaches full production.